Friday, May 7, 2010

The Cake Disaster

I'm struggling with yellow cake. Chocolate cake, I have down. I've got my recipe, it never fails me, I'm good. But I've yet to find the sweet spot for the yellow cake. I tried a Rose Levy Beranbaum cake yesterday, the All Occasion Downy Yellow Butter cake, which she said would be perfect for any event. Assuming that all-inclusive appropriateness extended to a special request from a daughter, I gave it a go. Only I left it in the oven a bit too long, and then frosting it was a disaster. There seems to me to be something a little bit delicate about these yellow cakes. I once made a butter cake which was very successful, except that the orange zest in it called to mind baby aspirin. I'll keep trying on the yellow cake front -- I hate to be denied cake success -- but the struggle is frustrating.

2 comments:

Here's my yellow cake rec: Rainy Day Yellow Cake. My friend Emily wrote a column about cooking with kids for Family Fun for years, and this is one of her recipes. She tested it many times (we got to sample the test versions), and this was the final result. I use it when I need a yellow cake, though sometimes I add some lemon zest to it, so it's more lemon cake than yellow cake. It was also on recipezaar.com, and several people suggest upping the butter to 2 sticks, but it depends on how decadent you want it to be. Good luck!